Nintendo Switch OLED Library
Image: Damien McFerran / Nintendo Life

Last month, Switch emulator Ryujinx was forced offline after Nintendo contacted its owner to arrange its removal. While there were rumblings that the emulator might not be completely dead a few weeks back, it seems that Nintendo has now taken official ownership of the website, presumably to stop anything from reappearing under the same domain (thanks, GamesRadar).

This change in ownership was flagged on the r/Ryujinx Reddit forum by user XeClutch, sharing a screenshot of the WHOIS database website which positions Nintendo of America as the emulator's main 'Registrant Contact'.

According to WHOIS, the domain information was last updated on 7th November, though there's every chance Nintendo took official ownership of the Ryujinx site prior to this date.

Of course, the emulator site itself is no longer functional. Shortly after the announcement that it would be shut down, the Ryujinx site stopped offering emulator downloads, though the domain remained live. While the site still loads nothing, we'd imagine that Nintendo's formal ownership of it is a precautionary measure to prevent it from being used for emulator downloads in the future.

Towards the end of last month, a new Ryujinx update was released on its Github page, suggesting that work continues on the emulator. Nintendo may now have ownership over its site, but it's potentially far from stamping Ryujinx out for good.

We'll keep you updated if we hear any further updates on this story.

[source whois.com, via reddit.com, gamesradar.com]